Cowleys Pest Services Before & After Photos

A homeowner in Belmar, NJ, who was in the process of building his dream home, decided to invest in a dehumidifier for his basement, and he contacted us. Cowleys has a contractor division with an experienced crew that installs and services SaniDry dehumidifiers. These commercial-grade dehumidifiers that are specifically engineered for the challenging environments of crawl spaces and basements, and we limit our line to these workhorse machines. In these sub-grade areas of homes, chronic humidity is a problem, especially with our hot and muggy New Jersey summers. 

Dehumidification is the only effective long-term solution to remove excess moisture in the air. High indoor humidity levels are responsible for a host of problems for including mold growth, a favorable environment for insects, wood rot and other structural damage. Also, dehumidifiers improve the liveability of a home. They help eliminate musty odors that can waft into the living areas of the home and dramatically improve indoor air quality by removing airborne mold spores and other allergens, helping relieve allergy and other lung and respiratory symptoms. After inspecting the homeowner's basement, and based on the size (cubic volume) of the basement, we recommended a SaniDry XP commercial dehumidifier.

You may be thinking why not go with a residential dehumidifier? Can there really be that much of a difference between these commercial-grade dehumidifiers and the generic residential ones? The short answer is that there is no comparison. As many homeowners find out the hard way, the generic dehumidifiers sold in hardware stores simply aren’t up to the job. For example, the SaniDry XP that we installed for this homeowner is a powerful energy-efficient dehumidifier that outperforms standard household dehumidifiers by as much as 10 times -- while using the same amount of energy to run! The SaniDry XP can effectively cover indoor living spaces over 3000 square feet, making it well-suited for basements and crawl spaces over 40” high. 

The key difference between a residential dehumidifier and a SaniDry commercial dehumidifier is its ease of use and automatic operation. A residential dehumidifier requires human intervention to empty the pan of collected dehumidified water. If not timely emptied, the pan overflows, and usually, the machine shuts off once the flow bucket is full. Our commercial dehumidifiers direct the extracted water pulled out of the air into either a sump pump or, if a sump pump isn’t present, a condensation pump that pumps the water through a condensate hose to the outside of the basement. These machines work 24/7 year-round automatically. 

The homeowner was ecstatic to know that he would have clean, dry air circulating throughout his home and the reduced humidity levels in his basement would prevent mold growth. For him, this dehumidifier was an investment that protected both his home and his family’s health. 

These Sea Girt homeowners had a wildlife infestation in their attic. They had an exclusion done by our nuisance wildlife team who blocked all of the potential entry points into the attic. Unfortunately, although the wildlife was gone and could not re-enter, the homeowners were left with destroyed attic insulation and a toxic mess of animal droppings. 

We removed all the contaminated insulation and added TruSoft blown-in cellulose insulation. Blown-in cellulose insulation maximizes home comfort, has the highest Class-1 fire safety rating, is resistant to mold and pests, is eco-friendly, and optimizes energy usage for year-round peace and savings!

I was sent to a home in Belmar, NJ to help a homeowner dealing with a bird infestation. Some birds had decided to use her chimney to nest. Chimneys can be quite popular nesting spots for birds since they resemble high perches in nature. Nuisance birds can cause significant property damage with their acidic droppings. As pretty as birds are from a distance, they happen to be dirty wildlife and are dangerous to have around homes and other structures. Their droppings are toxic and contact with them or even just  breathing in their airborne particles can cause serious respiratory diseases. 

First, to deal with this bird infestation, I carefully removed any nesting material and debris left behind from the birds in the chimney. I then installed a chimney cap and placed Bird Barrier Optical gel in plastic pucks on top of the chimney, gluing them in place with a silicone adhesive.  

Bird control is all about behavior modification. The objective is to create a inhospitable environment, so they move elsewhere. This bird gel is one of my favorite bird deterrents. To us, this product looks like a bland, boring white gel. However, birds look at it much differently. They have far better color vision that us and see a much broader spectrum of colors. To birds, this gel looks like a giant fireball. Birds aren’t the brightest of creatures, but no bird has any interest heading into a raging fire! This big bird illusion is highly effective in keeping them away.

This Belmar homeowner was quite relieved that I had taken care of her bird problem so quickly. Once birds find a good nesting spot, they don’t usually leave on their own. As a bird control specialist, my job is to determine the best “incentives” for that property to get the birds to vacate on their own. Now, with the chimney cap and optical gel, these birds will be relocating to a friendlier location.

We went out on a call from a property manager in Sea Girt, NJ who owned a condominium complex. The property manager mentioned that the dehumidifiers in the basement of his complex needed an upgrade. The current dehumidifiers he had were too small to properly treat the areas needed and they kept malfunctioning. A dehumidifier is a great air treatment solution for removing excess moisture around your home and protecting it from damaging mold. Dehumidifiers can help relieve allergy symptoms as well as lung and respiratory symptoms. The fact that the dehumidifiers kept malfunctioning and weren't large enough to properly service the room, made them useless.

First, we inspected the current dehumidifiers to make sure there wasn't any damage to the outputs or wiring. Once we confirmed there wasn't we replaced all three dehumidifiers with commercial grade Sani-dry Sedona dehumidifiers. These dehumidifiers are perfect for commercial properties. They cost less to run than other dehumidifiers, cover over 3000 square feet and are energy efficient. What's the main difference between commercial and residential dehumidifiers? Commercial dehumidifiers can remove up to 160 pints of moisture, while most residential dehumidifiers remove up to 70 pints. Not to mention, commercial dehumidifiers operate in temperatures as low as 33° F and are constructed out of durable steel parts versus plastic materials in a residential dehumidifier. Lastly, residential dehumidifiers have a pan or bucket that you must manually empty once it's full of dehumidified water. With commercial dehumidifiers, the water is drained into a sump pump. If there is no sump pump present than we use a condensation pump to pump the water into a sink or outside the property. 

Two of the dehumidifiers were in rooms that were back-to-back. We are able to place the water evacuation tube (which filters the water out of a dehumidifier) from the dehumidifiers into a commercial utility sink. As for the other dehumidifier, we were able to use the existing condensation pump that was in perfect working condition. Now the rooms can be treated properly! 

Recently, we went on a service call for a homeowner in SeaGirt, NJ who had an issue with moisture in his crawl space. Moisture can seep into the crawl space through poor circulation or from the foundation walls and can lead to a number of problems, such as mold and mildew growth. As much as 40% of breathable air in your home comes up through the crawl space. Which means if mold exists in your crawl space, the unhealthy air circulating through your home can cause health problems for your family.

Once we arrived we began our inspection in the crawl space and discovered that the wooden door leading into the crawl space was rotted, damaged, and not closing properly. This was allowing not just moisture into the crawl space, but pests as well. Crawl spaces can also become a dwelling for pests if not properly maintained. Once pests enter your crawl space, they can follow heated air ducts, water pipes, and electrical wiring into your home and cause additional health issues. 

Continuing our inspection we noticed that homeowner had a dirt floor crawl space and there was an excessive amount of garbage and debris scattered throughout the crawl space. Dirt floor crawl spaces attract and absorb moisture. When the dirt dries, it causes humidity levels to rise in your home. After a thorough inspection, we determined that this was the cause of the moisture build-up in the crawl space.   

The best treatment to remove the moisture from the crawl space is to install a vapor barrier. A vapor barrier is a super-durable, 20-mil 7-ply plastic sheet material made up of high and low-density polyethylene with polyester-cord reinforcement. The vapor barrier resists the passage of air and by stopping air movement from the ground, it can also turn your crawl space into a semi-conditioned space – one that is close to the temperature of the living spaces above. When that occurs, your floors feel warmer in winter and your energy bills go down.

First, we removed all the sharp rocks and debris, which may puncture the insulating plastic, from the crawl space and then graded the ground to create a leveled surface. Next, we anchored the vapor barrier to the walls and placed it on the floor. We also installed an Everlast™ door to replace the damaged wooden door. An Everlast™ door is made from ½-in.-thick PVC plastic that will never warp, crack, shrink, require maintenance or painting and will prevent any unwanted pests and moisture from entering the crawl space.

With the new vapor barrier and everlasting door in place, the moisture levels in the crawl space are greatly reduced which will prevent mold and foul odors from growing and forming.